Personal fibre connection at a commercial address.

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Ghouly

12 posts

Geek

#293100 28-Dec-2021 13:44

Hey guys.

We live on site at a commercial building, in a 2 bedroom apartment. We also run the business in the building, which I guess would be considered the buildings primary function.

We've asked Spark if we can change from our business account which is on 4g Wireless, to a new fibre connection (as its just become available in our area).

Spark have said as it is a commercial building, Chorus won't allow them to put us on a Personal plan, and that we will have to stay with the Business plan (which is $30+ more expensive per month, no free Netflix).

We don't need the business level of support, as all our eftpos terminals are 3g connected anyway, and it could operate without internet in here at all. We're looking at keeping as many costs down as possible.

Are spark being genuine with this? Any suggestions?

If we have to use a "commercial/business" plan we'll probably leave spark. Is there nything better around than what Orcon are offering for SME (the 6 months free).

TIA.

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lucky015

746 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#2839745 29-Dec-2021 05:14

Once a Chorus ONT is installed to a property there is no restriction on if residential or business products can be ordered on it. This is not the same for all of the other wholesalers.

Getting the ONT installed (via a standard install process) may require a little bit of back and forward (especially for messy business addresses) however is perfectly achievable should you sign up with a provider who doesn't follow the "nah it's a business address, that's too hard for our residential provisioning team so lets make a policy against it" mind set.

Your best bet is to seek out a provider who put in the extra effort, typically that will be one of the smaller providers and the one mentioned above Voyager have one of the best reputations for this.

Ghouly

12 posts

Geek

#2844091 6-Jan-2022 08:55

Goosey:

The best thing here for the OP to do is take a look at both the LIM and property file for the premises (available from the council) and see if the property was actually legally consented for being partially used as a residential address.

That would then settle the arguments over if it is a "commercial" vs "free residential" install.

The property is consented as "mixed use," including accommodation. The unit has gone through the council/building consent process.

We ended up going with Orcon, and they'll do the install middle this month. It was on their small business plan, as they could do a price similar to a "residential" connection and it saved us the "hassle."

Thanks for your help everyone.